255 Payback Time

She had contacted her grandfather's attorney firm which had been mentioned in the documents. After a lengthy conversation with the elderly gentleman who had serviced her grandfather personally for so many years, she had formulated the plan.

It was only when the news broke of Li family picking up a stake in a new company, that she realised why had her father wanted to transfer the shares now, suddenly after so many years of her grandfather's passing away. He wanted to give away everything to outsiders, did he?

"I WONT LET IT HAPPEN!"

She had asked the lawyer to start the process of transferring the shares from her grandfather to her name, as per the will and also asked him to arrange a meeting with the Wang company urgently.

Getting down from the flight, she went to the office of Mr. Wang. As per the newspapers, Li family had decided to put in a large chunk of their wealth into this venture. After the demise of Grandpa Li, the family business had kind of come to a standstill. Maybe they had seized this opportunity to expand their business interests. At the Wang office's reception, she announced her appointment with the company's director and was asked to wait.

9am, Shanghai time

"What? The Li family representative is here already? But Wang Senior has not arrived yet," the executive assistant fretted.

He went down personally to escort the person but was taken aback at her appearance. This was a young miss who claimed herself to be the representative.

"I am Samantha Li. Lawyer He has arranged the meeting on my behalf already," she told the sceptical assistant.

He gave her a disbelieving look but didn't say anything since there was a confirmed meeting with a Samantha Li in the schedule. He decided to get Wang Wei to handle this till Mr. Wang walked in.

The past few days had been extremely stressful and the last thing that he wanted was to waste his boss's time.

He invited her to sit in the conference room and went to fetch Wei.

The conference room's door opened and Wei walked in. He had been having sleepless, stressful days and nights and it showed on his face. Looking at the person in front of him, he thought he was hallucinating suddenly.

"You?"

"You?"

"What are you doing here? Are you… are you here because of that night? Is it… are you preg…?" Wei looked as shocked as she felt.

"What nonsense? Haven't you heard of various contraceptive methods? And even if I was, why would I need to come here to look out for you? I would handle the situation myself. What decade is this - 1860s?" she cut his sentence, furiously.

Wei shot her a befuddled look, "err… so why are you here, then?"

"I, that is, I am here… because, uh, my name is Samantha Li. I am fifty percent shareholder in the Li holding company. And I am here to meet Mr. Wang to discuss our impending partnership," she said it in a single breath.

It was a surreal coincidence that she met the stranger from that night, here of all the places. It didn't matter what was he doing here. She just needed to get a grip on herself and conduct herself in a professional manner, instead of the the screeching behaviour which she had just displayed.

"Well, I am Wang Wei and I am a director in this company. So tell me what would you like to discuss today," he finally sat down, while his head tried to make sense of what was happening.

1pm, Li Mansion

There was a knock at Sam's door while she lay engrossed in recalling the happenings of this morning. The maid entered and informed her that lunch has been served.

Sam girded her stomach and went downstairs for another round of interaction with the other camp.

"Hello Yimei, long time," she greeted her step sister, who had a healthy glow of pregnancy on her face.

Yimei looked at her in dismay. Samantha had only grown prettier since the last time she had seen her. The adolescent charm had given way to an enticing beauty. Her features looked even more striking with the lack of any make-up. She was dressed conservatively in a fitted white shirt and a grey tweed skirt. Her wild short hair were gelled back and pulled into a tiny pony. The whole effect was that of an attractive, self-assured woman. And it made insecurity gnaw in Yimei 's stomach.

Looking at her daughter's stricken expression, Mrs. Li came between the two women and told them to take their respective places at the dining table. The awkwardness was covered up by Grandma Li who enquired inquisitively about Sam's current life, likes and dislikes. They were all surprised when Sam told them about her dual degrees in business administration and accountancy.